September 2026
As I head back to Corfu for 2 weeks, on what feels like a trial trip back to my house and Corfu friends, I’m pausing to reflect since July.
The cancer news is that it has metastasised to my spine, so I’m now under the care of The Christie hospital instead of the Greek consultant with the warm hug at the breast cancer unit at Wythenshawe. For now the boobs are staying together, as any surgery has been kicked into the long grass. I’m being given targeted therapy - aka pills - to try to stabilise and hopefully shrink tumours, which involves monthly oncology appointments and countless blood tests as the docs get the dosage right. I took the first cycle of meds and I’m hoping to start the second pretty soon. So I have a box of pills, supplements and a bioresonance zapper in my bag and I’m having to adjust to version of me that I never imagined. Just like all the hair on the floor.
I came back to UK in April and haven’t been back to Corfu yet. I’ve been in borrowed clothes for much if the summer, and you know what, it’s been a gift to stay with my sister and bro in law and their family, feel the love of friends, see my mum, and to kick the danish pastry habit while enjoying the odd one at Barbakan. Though I’m looking forward to a pistachio croissant at Pelagia’s bakery when I get back. I had amazing days with Martina and Paul at Arley Hall - such a British way to spend a Sunday, in herbaceous borders and marvelling at roses and laid out formal gardens.
Art has been sustaining and nourishing and I’ve been in awe at Ai Wei Wei’s Button Up exhibition at Aviva, and the Hokusai and Hiroshige exhibition at The Whitworth. Omg the textile exhibition is wonderful too.
It’s probably time to think about a more peaceful and less stressful life for the next few years. It’s probabaly reluctantly time to sell Mandala to someone who can enjoy it, and probably make more of financial success of it than I have.
As both legal and health circumstances have changed, it’s time for a new direction it seems. I might not have chosen this change of direction but it’s certainly choosing me. It’s an amazing privilege to live in Corfu and create ‘the house we all built’. Of course leaving the house doesn’t have to mean not going to Corfu and I have to remember that the beauty, dance, beach time and friends I’ve made are still going to be there.
Though my heart loves to be the keeper of the nexus point and my ego likes to welcome folx through the gates and see the wow, Mandala is doing perfectly well without me in the care of friends. Sian is being the mini Madame/forewoman and having a life change, Jem has run a book club there. I’m looking forward to Laura, Naar and my sister arriving. In the next couple of weeks I’m gonna try doing this thing called chilling that I’ve heard of yet rarely experienced. So hopefully I’ll mostly find me under a sun umbrella outside Ina’s drinking freddo espresso, if I’m not painting with Philippe, or exploring art therapy with Ayelet. It’s a gorgeously creative time lined up to make the most of the last few days of summer.
